The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the CBI’s response to the plea of a retired government official, who is facing trial in a fake passport case along with gangster Chhota Rajan, to quash criminal and corruption charges framed against her.
Justice I.S. Mehta issued notice to the agency asking it to file its response before July 8. A trial court here had on June 8 framed charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy under the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act against 62-year-old Lalitha Lakshmanan, a former employee of the regional passport office at Bengaluru. Out on bail Similar charges had been framed against two other public servants. Jayashree Dattatray Rahate and Deepak Natvarlal Shah have been accused of helping Rajan procure a fake passport in the name of Mohan Kumar. The trial court had framed charges against all the accused, including the gangster, under the Passport Act as well.
While Rajan is lodged in the Tihar Jail here, the other three accused are out on bail.
Ms. Lakshmanan said that since the fake passport was allegedly issued to Rajan in Bengaluru, the trial court in Delhi did not have the jurisdiction to try the case. In her petition filed through advocate Satya Narayan Vashisth, she contended that no sanction was obtained under the Passports Act and the Criminal Procedure Code before initiating proceedings against her. She said there was no material to proceed against her and requested to be discharged from the case. CBI’s case Ms. Lakshmanan claimed that applications for passport renewal were checked manually back in 1998-99 and she used to handle over 300 applications every day between 2.30 pm and 4.30 pm. She could, at the most, only be accused of oversight.
She also claimed that she had the “protection of good faith” under the Passports Act.
CBI had alleged that Rajan had got himself another passport issued on December 19, 2003 from the High Commission of India at Harare, Zimbabwe, and a third one from the Consulate General of India in Sydney on the strength of the passport issued in Bengaluru.
